Can ISPs be trusted?

[Bill Davidsen]

Alan Cox wrote:
> The question is as much "can they ISP employees be trusted"
> 
> Most of the tools assume not for anything critical
> 
> - Firewalls on PCs are user not ISP managed
> - SSL uses digital signatures so that if your ISP or its staff try to
>   like about name to address mappings you get warned
> - ssh uses crypto and host keys and the like
> 
> There are plenty of people in the ISP world who can earn good money from
> installing loggers for people without needing to worry about the
> government ;)
> 
I trust Verizon to do the wrong thing in every case. When DNS poisoning was an 
issue, they not only didn't use random ports for DNS inqueries, they DNATed any 
DNS request to teir DNS server, so I couldn't even run my own correctly patched 
DNS. Now they have blocked access to mail servers other than their own, by doing 
the same thing to port 25, claiming that people can use 3rd party mail services 
if only the 3rd party services will convert to Verizon's mail protocol.

You can get an unfiltered connect to the Internet for only $300US more each 
month, indicating that they aren't interested in blocking SPAM, just in getting 
more money from spammers and anyone running their own mail.

Fortunately there is another provider available.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot